Anti-Proliferative Activity of Zerumbone Against Tumour Cell Lines

Zerumbone (ZER) is a cytotoxic phytochemical component extracted from the tropical herbal plant, Zingiber Zerumbet smith. It has been identified as an active anticancer compound. This study was aimed to evaluate in vitro the anti-proliferative activity of this bioactive compound, zerumbone, on seven cancer cell lines namely: CEMss (T4-lymphoplastoid), Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO), 3T3 (mouse fibroblast), WEHI-3 (murine monomyelocytic leukemia), HeLa (Human cervical cancer), MCF-7 (human breast cancer) and MDA-MB-231 (human mammary cancer-estrogen negative). The antiproliferative activity of ZER was evaluated using 3-[4,5-dimethylthizol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, together with the commercially available anticancer drug Cisplatin as a control drug. The most sensitive cells to ZER were found to be WEHI-3B, 3T3 and Hela cell lines with an IC₅₀ of 5, 6 and 6.4 µg mL^-1, respectively, followed by CEMss cell lines with an IC₅₀ of 12 µg mL^-1. This indicates the possible potential use of ZER for treatment of hematological cancers in addition to the cervical cancer. Meanwhile, ZER was found to be less toxic to the normal cell lines CHO.